WHAT ARE CANVASES?
Canvases are open fabric meshes usually made of cotton. They form the woven foundation for many embroidery and knotting techniques. Canvas is usually covered with embroidery over its entire area. Fine canvases with 26 to 70 stitches per 10 cm are for cross-stitch, needlepoint, satin stitch and other stiches for counted embroidery; while coarse canvases with 13 to 21 stiches per 10 cm are for coarse cross-stitch, statin stitch and latch-hook works. A special finish lends the fabric a stiffness which makes it easier to embroider. Canvases from ZWEIGART® are woven from sturdy, evenly rounded multiple twines, heavily finished and feature a square and stitch-precise surface.
Our canvases are divided into three categories: This includes mono-canvas on one hand, “twisted canvas” and double-threaded canvasses on the other. Each canvas binding has different features and is particularly well-suited to certain embroidery or rug works techniques. Which canvas should be used depends on the project at hand and the technique and material used.
Mono-canvas is a single-threaded canvas. It is woven in canevas binding, meaning that the vertical warp and horizontal weft move up and down and cross at the same distance – all openings between the threads are woven checkers. The mesh threads are stiffened with a finish so that they stay in shape and don’t shift.
Double-threaded canvases are also plain woven, except the spaces between the mesh threads are not equal. Instead, it has two threads packed close together, forming a stable woven checker made up of two warp and two weft threads. With double-threaded canvas, the fineness is not indicated with the number of mesh threads, but with the number of woven checkers. The opening or puncture site between the woven checkers is large and simplifies counting and embroidering. It is the classic cloth for tapestry such as Gobelin eembroidery. The special technique here is tracing: Patterns are pre-tensioned in colour between the two closely-packed mesh threads and then embroidered over. On double-threaded canvas, particularly fine pattern fields such as faces can only be embroidered using a single weaving thread, even with split or thinner thread, which means there isn’t just one stitch for patterning at these places, but four.
Twist canvas is a special fabric in technical terms, in which two warp threads twist around each of the weft threads. It is similar to single-threaded canvas, only here the threads cannot shift anymore and the cloth thus has a higher surface stability, even after the finish has been washed out.
(from Zweigart Website.)